Emails that circulated among Rauner administration officials in the early days of the Legionnaires Disease outbreak at the Quincy veterans home show a scramble to control the messaging on how the issue would be portrayed in the media.
One email chain haggled over the wording of an initial press release about the outbreak… which would not be issued until six days after state officials recognized they were dealing with an “epidemic” of the waterborne illness.
In the emails obtained by Chicago Public Radio, one medical expert complained that the press release seemed like, quote, “smoke to cover people’s butts.”